Elsewhere on these pages I’ve extolled the
virtues of HDTT’s output. There have been a few disappointments
though, but then HDTT are dealing with master tapes and LPs of varying
quality and vintage. For the technically minded the bold sleeve notes
- they don’t really qualify as booklets - list the equipment and
processes used in these transfers, which are then made available in
a number of physical/downloadable formats. The emphasis is always on
high definition, but even as standard CDs the results are pretty impressive.
This live recording of organist Calvin Hampton playing his own transcription
of Mussorgsky’s
Pictures at an Exhibition was made on a
two-track 15ips tape by engineer John Profitt. It’s not the first
organ transcription or recording of this piece - older listeners may
remember Arthur Wills’s spectacular Hyperion LP with its eye-catching
prismatic cover - so Hampton does have some competition. It seems he
was much better known in the USA - I haven’t come across his name
until now - but apart from the audiophile claims of this recording I
was keen to see if the transcription lives us to Profitt’s description
of the piece as ‘masterful’.
First impressions are most promising; the Austin organ is quite closely
recorded and Hampton’s clean articulation and bold registrations
aren’t at all compromised by an excitable acoustic. If anything
there’s a slight dryness to the sound that reminds me of those
Sheffield Labs LPs I admired years ago; what this HDTT recording shares
with those demo discs is a vivid, yet unexaggerated presentation that
rings true in every sense. That may not come across first time around
- it certainly didn’t for me - but repeated listening makes all
the difference.
The transcription itself doesn’t quite measure up to the hype
- some may find that Hampton’s broad-brush approach misses the
music’s subtle details - but the general outlines are imaginatively
drawn. The most dynamic and demanding pictures -
The Hut on Fowl’s
Legs and
The Great Gate of Kiev - sound hefty but not overbearing;
as for the more animated ones -
The Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
and
The Market at Limoges - they are well characterised. There’s
also a decent pause before the applause kicks in.
HDTT’s prices are reasonable so prospective buyers shouldn’t
baulk at the disc’s short playing time. As a technical achievement
this CD of
Pictures is impressive, and I daresay the high-res
versions are even more so; that said, those hoping for a big, bravura
display
à la Arthur Wills may find Hampton’s approach
is just too restrained. Indeed, the sleeve note says this transcription
‘met with controversy’ at its premiere, but doesn’t
elaborate. It’s certainly entertaining, if not memorable. As with
their other releases HDTT’s notes trumpet the technology but don’t
pay enough attention to essential details, such as track listings; all
too often the latter are sprinkled with careless typos that are at odds
with the company’s dedication to excellence elsewhere.
This transfer is technically superb; musically it’s much less
interesting.
Dan Morgan
http://twitter.com/mahlerei
Masterwork Index:
Pictures
at an exhibition
